Field of the Art
The disclosure relates to the field of image processing, and more particularly to the field of change detection and specifically damage detection for large-scale satellite image processing systems.
Discussion of the State of the Art
Each year, hundreds catastrophic events impact vulnerable populations around the world. Examples of such events include floods, earthquakes, typhoon, and armed-conflicts, etc. Assessing the nature and extent of damage caused by these crises is crucial in making timely decisions to allocate appropriate resources for helping populations. Since disaster locations are usually not readily accessible, the use of satellite imagery has emerged as a unique and reliable source of information for estimating the impact of catastrophic events. However, currently this assessment is mostly done by analyzing the pre and post-event images of the distressed areas by human photographic interpreters, making it a labor intensive and expensive process.
What is needed is a means to scale up damage detection analysis to larger geographic areas while maintaining high levels of accuracy and efficiency.